'New' species often tend to be slightly underwhelming - a ladybird, say, with a couple of extra spots, or a fern that curls at a slightly different angle.

But botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have uncovered a plant unlike anything else on earth - an orchid that blooms only at night.

It's mystified scientists: the best explanation anyone can come up with for its unusual lifecycle is that it is pollinated by midges who fly around at night.

The botanists were bafflied as to why the bulbs would grow to 'adult' size then wither - then by chance, they saw one of the plants bloom at 10pm

The bloom was discovered 'by accident' after researchers couldn't understand why the bulbs grew to 'adult' size, then failed to open.

Then a researcher saw one of the orchids opening at 10pm.

No other plant like it exists anywhere - or is recorded in any historical record.

The flowers are incredibly fragile, too - they last only one night before withering.

The new night flowering species,
Bulbophyllum nocturnum, from the island of New Britain near Papua New
Guinea, is the first known example of an orchid species with flowers
that consistently open after dark and close in the morning.

Its flowers
last one night only.

Scientists remain confused as to why the plant might have evolved such an unusual period of flowering - their best guess is that it is pollinated by midges who are around at night

The Epicrianthes group of orchids contain some of the most bizarre plant species ever discovered - and are found only in the most remote jungles

A relatively small number of plant
species have flowers that open at night and close during the day.

Until now, no orchids were known among them.

This in spite of the fact
that many orchids are pollinated by moths. But these moth-pollinated
orchids all have flowers that remain open during the day, even if they
are mainly pollinated after dark.

Botanists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity Naturalis have described it as 'the first night-flowering orchid known to science'.

Bulbophyllum nocturnum was discovered by
Dutch orchid specialist Ed de Vogel on a field trip to the island of
New Britain, where he collected some orchids in a logging
area for cultivation at the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, the Netherlands.

The discovery is published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

Under the care of garden manager Art Vogel one of these plant soon produced buds.

Their opening was eagerly anticipated as de Vogel and his colleagues had already established that this plant was a member of the Epicrianthes group of orchids - which include many rare and bizarre species, and only occur in the remotest jungle habitats on earth.

Frustratingly, however, the buds all
withered once they had seemingly reached the size at which they should
open. Wanting to get to the bottom of this, de Vogel took the plant home
with him one evening in order to find out exactly what happened to the
buds.

To his surprise, the bud that was then
present opened up at ten in the evening, long after dark, revealing the
flower of an undescribed species.

Observations on subsequent buds
confirmed that they all opened around 10pm, and closed the next morning
around 10am (3). The flowers lasted only one night, which explained why
the buds were seemingly about to open one day and withered the next.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew orchid specialist, André Schuiteman, and Leiden Bulbophyllum expert, Jaap Vermeulen, teamed up with de Vogel to investigate and describe this remarkable new species.

Says André Schuiteman of the discovery, 'This is another reminder that surprising discoveries can still be made. But it is a race against time to find species like this that only occur in primeval tropical forests. As we all know, such forests are disappearing fast. It is therefore increasingly important to obtain funding for the fieldwork required to make such discoveries.'

Why Bulbophyllum nocturnum has adopted a night flowering habit is unknown and requires further investigation.

However, it may be speculated that its pollinators are midges that forage at night.